No Lowry.  Home grown must stay.  Trade the outsider.  Matty Mo must go.

The Sabes said to Noah, there's gonna be a tradey-tradey
Sabes said to Noah there's gonna be a tradey-tradey
See you next year in (CLAP!) Tampa Bay-dy Bay-dy
Children of the Fog

Wow, I hadn't thought about Stratego in about a million years. I remembered the game instantly, but it took a while for the name to bubble up out of the memory swamp. I may have to go get a copy to play with my kids now...

Oh yeah, and I'm okay with trading Lowry if we get good value. I'm also okay with keeping him.

I don't think anyone would be considering trading Lowry had he not injured himself in his first start last year and continued what we had seen the two previous years.

Give him 2 months.  If he looks like '06 Lowry, I'm open to offers.  If he pitches how we want him to: no freaking way.

Lowry/Cain/Linc/Zito will be the best starting 4 in the majors for the next few years at least.  

Yes we need hitting, but with pitching like that you are a very very dangerous team.  Good pitching is more important than good hitting.

Lowry's contract, the fact that he's locked in for the next few years for basically nothing, and the fact that the Giants have a couple other starters locked in for the next few years for a lot of money...all of that has to affect his trade value, not just to the other team in question but to the Giants themselves. Unless they're certain that Lincecum is an absolute sure-thing to be a successful major league starter beginning in a matter of weeks, then trading Lowry creates the same problem that the Devil Rays of this world have. We'll have to hunt for more pitching, and have to pay a premium for it. Even if you get a decent hitter, it seems like one step forwards, two steps back.

Hope I've made my point. I was trying to add something to the conversation, but the Stratego reference threw off my equilibrium.

I'd rather trade Morris (as would everyone), but he's gonna need to continue to pitch with a sub 4 era for at least 5 or 6 more starts before he'd get anything of value in return. Lowry's contract makes him much more valuable than Morris on the market and I think we'd have to go that route to get a real hitter and not a question mark.

I'm not too concerned about depth. We have bat boy waiting in AAA, plus I still think Correia and (maybe) Hennessy could be an ok 5th starter. Biggest concern with depth is if Ortiz can't maintain adequacy.

This is a tough one, to me. Clearly the Giants need a another hitter who can reliably slg .500 against RHP, or they will not make the playoffs this year. Unless, of course, we think that Klesko can do this on a regular basis - Bochy must know something about his endurance, since he's not getting the playing time to show what he can do anyway.

My sense is that you need to deal for a 3b-man or outfielder who will round out the lineup, since Feliz and Winn are the weakest links. But do you need to give up Lowry? Others have said only for a youngish slugger. But it'll be at least a month or two of quality starts from Lowry before other GMs will consider giving up a guy like Rios (and even then, we'll need to add to the package significantly).

It'd be tough to deal within the division, but I've been coming up with names like Chad Tracy or Garret Atkins lately. Would Morris fetch one of them? For those who think dealing a starter is worth considering, let's hear some names, or else it all stays too abstract.  

Freaky. The kids just had Ultimate Stratego out the other night, and all the pieces were messed up.  I was way too tired to figure it out and the directions were lost.  I even tried to download the instructions, but that only served to confuse me more.  The game is presently sitting on the coffee table with my five year old begging me every night to play it with him.  I know he won't understand it, but he is, like most boys, obsessed with all manner of armed and unarmed battle.  Very timely reference.

I say let's hold off on the trade talk, especially as to Noah.  This view is mostly based on the contract and that I think he is underrated by other GM's so we would have difficulty obtaining the kind of skilled hitter this team needs.  We don't need another "veteran bat" like Winn, which is what we would get for the under-appreciated Mr. Lowry.  Let's round up the usual suspects, starting with Geoff Jenkins.  No thanks.  

I must have pointed out this 10 times by now, but it's not a great move to trade 1 starting pitcher just because you have a phenom in the minors.

I would only trade one of our current 5 starters if it was some kind of ridiculous swindle - maybe solving 2 of RF/3B/1B holes at once - with guys who can really rake.  Contract status would depend - like Lowry->Cabrera or Morris -> Arod.

Giants would have to come out ahead huge trading a SP, because when the inevitable injury comes, we immediately downgrade SP or bullpen or both, and give back at least some of the gain on offense.

It's not like this team (.500 or not) is on the brink of greatness.  It's still 2 hitters and a bullpen short of solid.   Come trade deadline time, lets see where we stand in the standings.

Finally - what if we trade one, bring up Link and the league goes all sidewinder on him and he's walking like 12/9inn.  We have to send him down, and yay it's Corrieaennseychez time.

I'm sorry, I've got to stay in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Yes long term if we don't score runs we will suck, but Richie is doing good, Vizquel and Roberts will stop pressing so much, and Winn will finally do something. In my mind I'll take it because the grass isn't always greener on the other side .. . . .

The Giants are playing .500 ball right now. Let's be patient and hope our pitching staff keeps it up. If Lowry pitches like this through the summer, we know what he's going to do in August, why trade him? Sure his value will be high, but his potential was always there. We have him signed to a bargain contract through 2010. I'm not opposed to trading Lowry if the right deal were to present itself, but the last thing I want to see is a reach trade for a marginal bat.

Why were they called Miners? Why weren't the bombs called mines? Would have made a lot more sense. Regardless, Stratego was a great game. If they could somehow combine Stratego and Risk, you'd have a helluva game. What would the Giants Roster look like if you assigned Stratego roles to everyone? Well, we know Benitex is a bomb.

watching the NFL Draft with Mel Kiper Jr.